reflection: Week 5

In this week's workshop we were asked to create a brochure for a holiday destination. The program we were to use was Microsoft Office Publisher and the content was to be a combination of our creative input and items from the internet by means of photos and information.
I am familiar with this program, having made brochures before; the program has many options for personalizing the presentation of information and I could imagine would be a teriffic way of encouraging students to navigate software and websites in a creative way.
In previous studies, i had a task that required me to create a 'Wellness' brochure for families of young children, a task that required a lot of professional research. Greg's assignment for us was of course the holiday destination brochure, a task that is more reflective of past experiences or interest directed. In a primary classroom the brochure activity can be integrated into a vast array of learning topics to suport many valued skills in primary education, including liteeracy, ICT, research skills, creativity and intrapersonal learning etc.

This week Greg introduced us to e-portfolios, what will count as our major assessment and what will no doubt be a large part of our primary classroom for assessment and reflection on individual student progress and achievement. An e-portfolio features multiple examples of students work in a student-centered digitalised collection of information both teacher and student governed that can act as a guide for future planning and a reflection for past skills and knowldege.

As a teacher-in-training i am well aware of the professional development journey i have embarked upon. Embedded in this journey will be the acquisition of ICT skills as described in this week's class as the following stages; Entry, where instruction is explicitly compreheded; Adoption, the mentoring stage of learning; Adaptation, tranferring knowledge; Appropriation, which involves peer to peer collaboration and Innovation, the final stage where skills are efined and 'coached' in interpersonal learning.

Ready...deep breath.....let's go!